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IT'S BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Auckland City Keeper Cameron Brown saves at the feet of Team Wellington's Ihaia Delany TheJourneyFan

It’s back,
Football’s back! Although it never really went away but the last
couple of months have been a mix of A-League & National League
pre-season games and even a couple of New Zealand internationals
(where they surprised everyone with two credible performances a 1-2
loss to Mexico and a 1-1 draw with the USA).

This weekend
saw the kick off of the 3 National League’s – The Stirling Sports
Premiership for the men, the National Women’s League & the
National Youth League, which was the reason I found myself at Petone
Memorial on a gloriously sunny Wellington day.

The National
Youth league has been going since 2002. This season sees a couple of
changes as all teams are now youth teams of the Stirling Sports
Premiership teams. It means that Nelson Marlborough Falcons and
WaiBOP United are replaced by Tasman United & Hamilton Wanderers
respectively. Eastern Suburbs join the league, while Heartland
Wairarapa, Manawatu United & Auckland United are all dropped.

Team
Wellington are the current holders of the National Youth League
title, while Auckland City were runners up, but as this is a
development league with an age restriction the previous seasons form
isn’t really a barometer you can use in assessing the teams for
this season.

Team Wellington have only retained 2 players from their
championship winning squad while Auckland City have retained slightly
more with 5, however in 30 man squads this still means a large
turnover of players. There have also been coaching changes for both
teams. Team
Wellington have entered a partnership with the Ole Football Academy
this season and have new coaches in Miramar’s Rupert Crump &
Ole Academy’s Ben Sippola with Western Suburbs coach & Ole
Director of Coaching, Declan Edge working as Technical Director.

Auckland City
lost their coach, Jose Figueira, to Team Wellington’s Premiership
side and are coached this season by Andy Peat who is assisted by John
Cunningham.

Auckland City's Ignacio Machuca The JourneyFan

Team
Wellington had the first chance in the 8th
minute when an Aaron McDonald shot went just wide of the post.
Auckland City should have been 1 up in the 15th
minute when a cross from Rahimi found Maro Bonsu-Maro on the penalty
spot but he was unable to direct his volley into the goal. Team
Wellington had a couple of other chances but it was Auckland City who
were dominating the game with some nice football, especially from
Ignacio Machua in the midfield. Auckland City had a few chances but
(and I see this with a lot of youth teams) they tended to make the
wrong decision when they got near the goal and instead of having a
crack would look for the option to pass instead. They could probably
have been up by a couple at half time if they had shot more.

Andy Peat may
have had the same thoughts as me as in the second half Auckland City
seemed to have a lot more shots on goal. Team Wellington’s keeper,
Shea Stapleton, who had looked a bit suspect in the first half
started to come into his own and made a couple of good saves, but
when Auckland City’s Jack Anderson curled the ball into the far
corner in the 73rd
minute there was nothing he could do and it was 1-0 Auckland City.

10 minutes
later it was all square when Team Wellington’s Ahmad Mohammadi, who
had only come on as a sub 3 minutes earlier, put the ball in the back
of the net.

Team Wellington's wall jumps to defend a Free kick The JourneyFan

The game
started to get frantic now as Team Wellington pushed for a winner but
it was Auckland City who on a counter attack found sub Antonio
Bonkovich unmarked on the far post and he lobbed it into the goal.

Things
weren’t over yet, somehow there were 7 minutes of extra time (I
assume from the number of subs) and Team Wellington were continuing
to push and they did get the ball in the back of the net in the 6th
minute but it was flagged as offside (which it was)

Overall
Auckland City deserved their 2-1 win but Team Wellington gave them a
good game and these 2 teams should be in or around the top of the
table come the end of the season.